SNP’s £2m war chest has not been passed on to campaign

The SNP’s £2 million independence campaign war chest has not been given to the official Yes Scotland campaign, it emerged yesterday.

The money came from a £1m donation from lottery winners Colin and Chris Weir, as well as a bequest of almost £1m from the late makar Edwin Morgan, right.

The official Yes campaign, headed by Blair Jenkins, is being left to run its own fundraising operation for the moment. Yes Scotland includes the SNP, Greens and Scottish Socialists. Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon sits on its board and the pro-Union Better Together camp suggested “SNP control freakery” could be behind the decision.

First Minister Alex Salmond launched Yes Scotland last May and it was widely expected it would get the bulk of the £2m funding. But official campaign spending limits unveiled by the Electoral Commission last week show the SNP will have £1.3m to spend, while Yes Scotland will have £1.5m.

The absence of the £2m from Yes Scotland’s accounts may lie behind its repeated delays in publishing donor details.